Mike’s Timberwolves Blog

The 15 Greatest Iowa Bands Of All-Time

I grew up in the Hawkeye State. And although I love it like a little brother, I also reserve the right to make fun of it like a little brother. BUT ONLY I CAN!!! Not even other Iowans get to make fun of Iowa, just me! Don’t tell me it’s boring to drive through. Iowa didn’t ask you to visit. What did you expect on the highway? Ferris wheels? The Lollipop Guild? Here’s the trick to driving through Iowa: Expect nothing, and you’ll never be disappointed.

Anyway, regardless of what people think, there is a long and rich history of music coming from Iowa. You probably just didn’t know. Sit back, and prepare to be wowed:

15) House Of Large Sizes – House of Large Sizes is Iowa’s Yo La Tengo. They’re an indie rock band that’s been around for decades, everybody respects them and nobody listens to them on purpose.

14) Modern Life Is War – MLIW is undoubtedly, without question, 100% the coolest thing to ever come out of Marshalltown, IA. The second place award goes to a homeless person that fell out of one of their 500,000 trains.

13) Slipknot – Slipknot increased our list of famous people by 75% just by existing. There’s nine of them! Iowans are required by law to like Slipknot, even if they hate their music. This rule also applies to the Field of Dreams movie, Radar O’Reilly from MASH and meth.

12) Ummm….hmmmmm. Okay, what’s the next one? Oof…this is kind of embarrassing. Bands from Iowa…bands from Iowa. Buddy Holly died here! So did Richie Valens and the Big Bopper. But that was all together. Did I mention that Captain Kirk’s character is supposed to be from Iowa?

11) Oh shit! Greg Brown! I forgot about Greg Brown. I don’t know any of his music but he seems cool.

3 thoughts on “The 15 Greatest Iowa Bands Of All-Time”

I was thinking to myself “Grrr…he’s gonna say ‘Slipknot.’ I hate slipknot. Grrr… Dammit.” And why do I hate Slipknot? After all, I love GWAR. Well, that’s part of it right there. The other part is that I lived in Des Moines (Norwalk actually but close enough) for some 8-odd years and EVERYONE knew someone who knew someone who suckled Corey fricking Taylor. Bleh. Besides, they are far more pretentious than anyone from Iowa has any right to ever be…